New finance minister stresses job creation, extra budget

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will have difficulty in attaining positive
economic growth this year, the new finance minister said Tuesday, pledging to
create more jobs and seek an extra budget aimed at stemming the economy from
falling deeper into recession.
"Jitters in the world financial sector linger and it is likely that the global
economy might face recession for a considerable period of time. It will be tough
for our export-driven economy to attain positive growth economically and in terms
of job creation this year," Yoon Jeung-hyun said in a written inauguration
speech.
"Against this backdrop, what we have to do is to maintain expansionary
macroeconomic polices. Our top priority will be to create jobs through
demand-boosting measures and to that end, we will continue to infuse liquidity to
the market and push for a supplementary budget as soon as possible."
Yoon, a former head of the Financial Supervisory Commission, was nominated by
President Lee Myung-bak in late January to replace Kang Man-soo who had been
under pressure to resign for losing market trust following what critics called
his "misguided" economic and financial measures. The replacement comes less than
a year after Kang's inauguration.
During his confirmation hearing on Friday, he "agreed" on the need for an extra
budget, calling for bipartisan support from lawmakers for the expanded spending
plan. He didn't elaborate on details including its scale and time frame but some
observes expect the nation to push for a 10-trillion won additional budget.
In December, the parliament passed a 284.5 trillion won budget for this year, an
increase of over 10 percent from the previous year. Demand has been growing for
an extra budget aimed at kick-starting the slumping economy.
According to the nation's central bank, the economy shrank 5.6 percent in the
final quarter of last year from three months earlier, the sharpest contraction in
more than a decade. In December, the economy shed jobs for the first time in more
than five years.
"We need to regain market trust with our polices as quickly as possible. I will
work hard to estimate the current economic conditions objectively and ensure
enough communication and consensus-building efforts in the overall policy-making
process," Yoon said.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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